A Church With a Missionary Heart

Antioch was a major city in the Roman Empire, serving as the eastern capital for the empire. It was also the city where a large number of the Jewish believers fleeing Jerusalem landed. Upon arriving in this city, they began to preach Jesus and a church was planted. They did not just reach out to their own people, but took the Gospel to the nations of people living in this ancient metropolis, and the church exploded in growth as a multi-cultural community of faith. To help the church, the mother church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas, who sought out Paul and brought him to Antioch. This cultural crossing missionary heart was so impactful that the residents in the city came up with a nickname for the believers in Antioch, "Christians", or little Christs. The missionary heart that began with reaching across ethnic and language boundaries in their city also prepared them for the task of reaching the nations and the call to send out their very best to join the mission. As we look at the church in Antioch, our goal today is to think about what it looks like to be a church and individuals with God's missionary heart.